useradd ignores defaults in /etc/default/useradd

Question

FTP Migration. Moving the FTP server from Windows to Ubuntu, and rebuilding the storage for FTP on a different server. I'm doing a one time pass to create about 100 users, all with the same password, with home directories on the mounted remote server. Here's what I'm running:

ls /media/OldFTP |
grep -Ev '^[[:digit:]]{4}|^P[[:digit:]]{4}|^W[[:digit:]]{4}' |
xargs -n1 -d'\n' useradd -m -g ftpusers -N -p [encryptedPassword]

This runs fine. It does everything it's supposed to, except the home directory is in the standard location of /home/, instead of the location I defined in the /etc/default/useradd file and with useradd -D -b /media/ftpShare. When I run useradd -D I get the setting I added with the previous command.

Why does useradd ignore these purported defaults?

Answer 1

Old question, but since I stumbled upon the same problem and solved it, I share: Apparently the defaults are no longer those in /etc/default/useradd but in /etc/adduser.conf. I edited the latter and new users adhere to my defaults. It's in the manpage for adduser ... where I should have looked first.